An Aggie Abroad

We departed Italy on a cloudy day and were met by crystal clear skies in Spain.

Right off the plane, Jill and myself located food. We ate at a beautiful restaurant where we had a goat cheese salad, mussels, and Iberico pork tenderloin with roasted bell peppers and potatoes.

Beautiful Architecture

Street Performers

For dinner, we ate at the iconic restaurant La Taurina. It is covered with bullfighting memorabilia and serves traditional Spanish food.

We ordered a grilled vegetable plate along with a fried seafood platter. The vegetable plate had mushrooms, asparagus, tomato, endive, and eggplant. The seafood platter had shrimp, octopus, calamari, fish, and sardines.

The next day, we visited a church next to the Prado.

Inside, painters restored paintings and artwork.

After the church, we walked to the botanical gardens.

There was an impressive bonsai exhibit within the gardens along with an art museum.

Next, we visited the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza, an art museum that houses paintings by Picasso, Pollock, and Monet just to mention a few.

For lunch we ate at an undiscovered gem. After first ordering a glass of sangria, I had spicy potatoes called bravas along with a calamari sandwich. Jill had gazpacho and fried calamari.

For dinner, we had a goat cheese salad, spicy shrimp in a garlic broth, and a codfish carpaccio.

For dessert we shared a chilled rice pudding sprinkled with cinnamon.

The next day at lunch, we dinned on octopus ceviche topped with a citrus foam, crispy eggplant doused in honey, a crispy shrimp cake, and grilled vegetables in a romesco sauce.

We visited the National Library along with the multiple museums inside.

Post lunch, we visited the Prado and were blown away. Madrid has so many art museums and the Prado is definitely the most famous. One of my favorite museums was within an underground theater. They hosted an exhibit called Face. It was stunning and very abstract.